Jewellers strike in city lacks sheen

CHENNAI: Many parts of the country have been seeing an indefinite strike by jewellers ever since Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee delivered his Budget speech in the Lok Sabha on March 16. But the shutdown has been marred in Chennai thanks to the lack of cooperation of some of the biggest stores on Usman Road. The shutdown of small jewellers is reportedly absolute across Tamil Nadu and the large stores are still doing business on the sly despite saying they are part of the strike. Usman Road is often touted to see among the largest centres of gold jewellery in the world. The stretch between Panagal Park and the T Nagar Bus Terminus has for decades been spotted with jewellers of all scales. That the largest among them has refused to throw their weight behind their own has hurt many sentiments.GRT Thanga Maaligai, Lalitha Jewellery, LKS Jewellers, Saravana Thanga Nagai Maaligai and Saravana Selvarathinam Jewellery all opened for business, even as the smaller shops stayed shut. While the main gates of all these shops were shuttered, staff ushered shoppers in through side entrances.“We opened shop only because the others opened shop. We are in business and we cannot lose ground to our competitors. Sentiments be damned, this is business,” said a senior executive of one of the Usman Road giants.This attitude has not gone down well with the smaller businesses, which have shut shop. “They make it sound like we are in for a free ride when only they are doing real business. They are as affected as we are. They do not care for ethics of business collectives, they are part of all these associations only for namesake. When they need backup is when we will have our opportunity to show them what we think of their business practices,” fumed a small shop owner.The All India Gems and Jewellers Trade Federation says it can do nothing. “We have over 4,000 members across the State. We are bound to have four or five who don’t go the group,” says regional chairman N Anantha Padmanabhan.